StopTheCirc

Did you comment yet on the Circ Highway EIS?

If you haven't, please done so yet, please submit your comments on the draft Circ EIS ... even if your comments are brief.

The new deadline for receipt of comments is Wednesday, November 21st.

For some ideas, take a look at the excellent Op-Ed remarks of Virginia Clarke in our previous posting.

You are also welcome to download the comments I am filing for ideas. Feel free to email me at: pcjournal@yahoo.com

Key points to stress:

1. We need to consider the sustainability of our transportation investments (this was a point made by the Burlington Planning Commission: "

"Infrastructure investments like this [referring to the Circ alternatives] enjoy a fairly short period of time before their capacity/functionality is again stressed an additional investments may be necessary. The Commission would strongly urge that the sustainability of the investment be included in the decision-making regarding a preferred alterrnative. Thus, consideration of which combination of capital investments and transportation services will serve the region most effectively over the longest period of time. Questions such as: How long will it be effective at meeting the purpose and need? How adaptable to change or flexible to accommodate future growth is it? How can it serve the most people over time?" [emphasis as is in the Planning Commission Memorandum]

2. We need to focus more on public transportation -- this closely relates to the above, since it provides a better long-term investment, especially in light of gas price trends and real global warming concerns. Take a look also at my earlier post about discarded Alternative 1 -- and in your comments consider requesting that Alternative 1 be reconsidered.

In terms of global warming, note that the just released "Final Report and Recommendations of the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change" (October 2007) states that: "The climate change crisis may represent the most important and comprehensive global challenge of our lifetime." ... [T]he upward curve of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) ... is the most significant source of greenhouse gas production in Vermont." As a "quick tip" the Report also recommends: "Use public transportation wherever possible -- if public transit is lacking in your area; express your concerns and ideas to local officials."

3. In selecting an alternative, an important factor should be cost. The draft EIS indicates that the cost of the limited highway Circ alternatives is upwards of $15 million more than building a "Circ Boulevard." And even lower cost alternatives are available for dealing with Essex-Williston congestion by improvements to Route 2A. If you want more detail on these points, download the Memo I prepared several weeks ago for the Burlington Planning Commission, and look at pages 3 and 4.

You can also download the Summary Matrix page from the draft EIS that sets out the comparative costs of the ten alternatives. (If you need a quick alternative to the ten alternatives under consideration (bearing in mind they do NOT include Alternative 1 and its package of public transportation enhancements), download the EIS' Executive Summary).

The full draft EIS is available online. If you want to locate detailed information -- I'd suggest starting with the Table of Contents, as the full document is extremely long.

You can file your comments by emailing or mailing them to:

Mr. Kenneth R. Sikora, Jr., Environmental Program Manager, Federal Highway Administration Region 1, P.O. Box 568, Montpelier, VT 05601
email: kenneth.sikora@fhwa.dot.gov

-- As an alternative if you're pressed for time, you can use a form available on the CLF web site -- you can easily modify the comments they've prepared to stress the issues / concerns most important to you, and then submit them by email.

Quick Update on Circ EIS hearing in Essex Jct.

This afternoon Lea Terhune (from Burlington), Marilyn Sowles (from Colchester), Steve Holmes (representing VNRC), and I tried to articulate some of the concerns we have with the build-the-Circ alternatives in the draft EIS. About a dozen Essex and Essex Jct. residents and officials spoke in support of the Circ. They uniformly rejected any of the Route 2A improvement alternatives, especially expressing their dislike of roundabouts (which more than one person referred to as Boston-style rotaries which Vermonters "just can't learn how to use"). Their sole solution: build the Circ.

Federal officials from FHWA and the Corps of Engineers were in attendance, along with the Circ EIS consultants and officials from VTrans.

If any of you attended the evening public hearing in Williston please let me know about anything that struck you in terms of comments people made -- or what you said. My email is: pcjournal@yahoo.com

I will post more information next week on how to provide written comments on the draft Circ EIS -- deadline is November 8th -- as well as on another key public meeting coming up later this month. Again, consider writing a letter to the editor -- just as Mary Sullivan so effectively did this week.

Wayne Senville

Why Alternative 1 disappeared ... and what was lost

Earlier in the process of putting together this draft Environmental Impact Statement a very promising alternative was put on the table: its focus was on "transportation demand management" -- that is, reducing single-occupancy vehicle use by providing greater public transit and putting more effort into other creative approaches. Here are the key components that were part of Alternative 1 (described on page 3-9 of the draft EIS):

-- Park-and-ride lots
-- transportation management association
-- improved traditional bus service; seven new “flex-ride” bus services in Essex, Williston, the Kimball Avenue area, Jericho-Underhill, Richmond, and Waterbury;
-- two bus rapid transit routes from Charlotte and Burlington to Essex Junction via Williston;
-- rail service from St. Albans to Burlington via Essex Junction.

note: I've uploaded the details of Alternative 1 (a six page pdf) prepared by the Circ consultants. You can download the file. Again, this Alternative was dropped from consideration, as explained below. It's contained in one of the Technical Appendices to the draft EIS.

So what happened?

Did you take a look at what I posted describing how VTrans narrowly defined the Purpose of this project, and how through a strategy called "segmentation" VTrans decided to have the EIS only focus on the "A-B" segment, instead of on all of the remaining planned Circ Highway?

The results of those VTrans decisions -- not surprisingly -- made any transportation demand management alternative, such as Alternative 1, unfeasible. Here's the explanation the Circ EIS consultants give for why Alternative 1 could not be pursued:

"Alternative 1 was designed as a robust and extensive package of transit improvements and transportation demand management measures to reduce trips in the VT 2A corridor. However, the screening analysis shows that it does not meet the project purpose and need, as its congestion reduction on VT 2A is small and its crash reduction is minimal." (see page 3-21 of the Draft EIS; emphasis added)

So here's the bottom line: by defining the project purpose narrowly just on congestion relief in the Route 2A corridor, and only focusing on the A-B segments, VTrans has pre-ordained that a transit-oriented approach that could have had huge County-wide (and even statewide) benefits could not be considered.

Again, an enormous amount of money will be wasted with this narrow approach to transportation planning -- an approach whose sole purpose seems to be to get the Circ built.

note: want to see what we're missing. I'm setting out at the end of this post the map of public transportation services included in Alternative 1 (from page 3-11 of the Draft EIS), again an Alternative that is NOT one of the 11 alternatives still under consideration.

And then read the details on what was proposed in Alternative 1 ... and weep! It's an account of what the County's future could be with improved public transportation services -- here's just an excerpt from the Circ consultants' report: "the combination of these services [bus, bus rapid transit, flexible bus, and rail] could greatly expand public transportation options within the project area, and to and from surrounding areas. These services could provide high quality regional services that could be competitive with travel by private vehicle, and flexible services that could provide door-to-door service for many trips."

In comments you file on the draft Circ EIS (deadline, November 8th) consider requesting VTrans to include Alternative 1 and, if necessary to enable this, broaden the statement of "Purposes" for the project AND include consideration of the impacts of the full Circ build out.

note: to view a higher resolution copy of this map, please download a pdf of the page included in the draft Circ EIS.

Are We Insane?

That's a question we might ask ourselves as we head, once again, towards spending well over $150 million dollars to build 12 miles of the Chittenden County's Circ Highway.

Have we heard of global warming; air pollution; or the potential for huge gas price increases? As respected environmentalist and author Bill McKibben succinctly put it, "The Circ Highway is a Global Warming Machine."

Do we realize that building new highways is not a long-term solution to congestion -- but will only further lock us into an auto-dependent future?

Don't we realize that our existing transportation infrastructure is crumbling?

Do we not care about building up our public transit system?

Do we have no better transportation uses for this huge amount of money than building the Circ?

Note: VTrans in the EIS is only analyzing a 3 mile segment of the Circ (referred to as "A-B") -- not all 12 miles that are still planned. This "segmentation" in the EIS helps make the Circ seem less costly (just $70 to $80 million), and not as environmentally damaging. But even this 3 mile segment is enormously expensive. VTrans has not publicly released the full cost of building all of the Circ -- is it because the cost would be shockingly high, without any doubt well in excess of $150 million? See How the Circ EIS hides the truth about the project.

There are two public hearings on October 4th, one in Essex, the other in Williston to take comments on the draft environment impact statement (EIS) -- a document that remarkably doesn't even put any transit-oriented alternatives on the table.

The afternoon hearing will be held from 1 to 4 at the Champlain Valley Expo, 105 Pearl Street, Essex Junction, while an evening hearing will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Williston Central School Auditorium, 195 Central School Drive.

The whole focus of the EIS is on which set of new or improved roadways will solve -- on a short-term basis -- some local congestion problems. They range from building the next segment of the Circ (the most expensive approach, of course), to very costly improvements to Route 2A.

The draft EIS does make one positive contribution, however. It once again clearly refutes Governor Douglas repeated claims that the Circ is vital to job growth in Chittenden County. The EIS reports that building the Circ will not add ANY new jobs compared to what would happen if we don't build the highway -- it would only redistribute jobs slightly within the County. For more on this important finding.

So what can you do?

1. Attend the October 4th hearings, and tell VTrans how you'd rather see our transportation dollars spent AND/OR submit comments via the CLF Circ Highway action page (they have an excellent system for submitting comments; you can use or modify the comments they have prepared). They also have information about the Circ, and some of its sorry history.

2. Ask your state legislators and local officials if they think it's sane to spend more than $150 million on the Circ.

3. Write a letter to the Editor. While the Free Press is one good choice, it would also be great if folks wrote to papers outside of Chittenden County. The Circ has huge statewide implications -- given that it's by far the largest and most expensive transportation project currently in the works in Vermont. Yet many outside of Chittenden County seem oblivious to it.

4. Contact organizations like:

• the Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club (call: 802-229-5151)
• the Vermont Natural Resources Council (call: 802-223-2328)   
• VPIRG (call: 802-223-5221)
• Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (call: 802-862-8347)

-- and ask them what they're doing to stop the Circ.

5. Subscribe to this blog feed or sign up for email updates so you'll hear about updates I'll be posting about the Circ Highway

Posted by Wayne Senville. The above represents my own views, and not those of any organization.